Making Headway
by LayDCardinal
Summary: Dudley gets a news paper that helps him move on. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: None of its Mine. Just a alittle one-shot 

It had been a long day, and frankly Dudley had no desire to head home just. The house would be overstuffed with people, and not in a good way. Christmas Eve always seemed to bring out the worst in him, which was why Dudley found himself sitting in the park near his house instead of in his house. It wasn't his wife who bothered him, no was his parents, who were sure to have arrived already. Somewhere between the ages of 20 and 25 he had gotten out from under his parents thumb and been booted out into society.

And society had frankly kicked him in the ass. The real world was nothing to joke about, and Dudley found out quickly what people tolerated and what they would not. It had taken time but Dudley figured he had finally figured out how to live a decent life, and figured out what a good life was all about, more importantly he had found good people to be actual friends to him. He figured he had done pretty well for himself. When he was 23 he had been approached by a member of the government and offered a job to help oversee the containment of the magical world. His department made sure that magic stayed securely in the magic world. A section that used to be handled by wizards but then changed over hands when they realized that wizards who had grown up in the wizarding world still stood out too much when talking and trying to circle amongst muggles. They simply could not integrate as well as a trained muggle. So now it was the muggle government's responsibility. Even now Dudley got a chuckle over the fact his parents still thought he was a sales man. He had known they would never accept what he did, or aknowledge the debt the debt they owed to magic but that was okay. His wife knew, and that was all that mattered. Most of the people he worked with were muggles like him who had been chosen because they had some sort of experience with the magical world. Not that they came into contact with witches and wizards often, he thought. In the five years he had worked there he had only met a wizard or witch a handful of times. They still didn't trust muggles like him, but he figured progress came slow.

Which is why he was shocked to find the Daily Prophet News Paper sitting on his desk when he went in for an end of the year meeting today. Was why he was in the park now instead of at home dealing with his parents. Dudley sat on the bench with the front of the newspaper in hand and turned to the page that he had already turned to so many times, and saw his cousins face smiling.

The headline read "Boy Who Lived turned Man Who Lived now Becomes Father Who Lived." Harry had become a dad. The event was big enough to warrant a whole story outlining what Harry had been doing the last few years. He had married a woman, a beautiful woman by the looks of her, about five years beforehand. Harry had gone from winning the war to training future aurors in defense against dark arts. He even owned his own very successful consulting firm. And now his family had increased by not one but two. Twins were born late last night. One of each sort, named Devon Harrison and Abigail Elizabeth. All Dudley could think was that Harry looked happy, actually happy. He had on a smile, not the fake smile he put on for show. Years ago Dudley would have felt jelously and hatred that his cousin still had one upped him, but that wasn't what he felt, no not at all. He felt peace, and genuine happiness for his cousin who he had not seen since they were both 17. Because of security Dudley had never even seen a picture of how Harry had turned out. He did not know who had put the newspaper on his desk, but he figured it was a gift from up above. Finally he could move on knowing that all the damage he and his parents had done, had not had any lasting effect. Even more his cousin seemed to now be loved, something they had never offered him, no matter how much he deserved it. Dudley would go on working hard to repay his debt, but it was good to know that maybe he was making headway.


End file.
